COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY
This site is owned and operated by the National Housing Trust (NHT). Your privacy on the internet is of utmost importance to us and we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe.
As we gather certain types of information about our users, it is important that you fully understand our policy and the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy and confidentiality statement, therefore discloses the type of information we gather and how we use it.
INFORMATION GATHERED AND UTILISED
Users are required to provide personal and financial data for the purpose of completing electronic transactions, updating client records and generating and accessing eligibility information. The NHT also gathers and utilises user information in the following processes:
The NHT’s website facilitates the use of email communication; if you choose to correspond with us through our website we may retain the content together with your email address and our responses. Also should you choose to use NHT’s “Email this page” feature to forward website content to someone else, neither your email address nor that of the recipient will be used by the NHT for any other purpose or be disclosed to any third party.
Log Files
We use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer the site, track user’s movement, and gather other information. These IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information. Additionally, for systems administration, detecting usage patterns and troubleshooting purposes, our web servers automatically log standard access information including browser type, access times, URL requested, and referral URL. This information is not shared with third parties and is used only within the NHT. Any individually identifiable information related to this data will never be used in any way other than that stated above without your explicit written permission.
Retention of Information
The NHT will preserve, retain and maintain personal information as long as is necessary in keeping with legal requirements. The removal and destruction of personal and sensitive information will be done in keeping with relevant legislation, industry standards and best practices to safeguard against unauthorised access and use.
Cookies
A Cookie is a small text file that a website server may issue to your computer whenever you visit a website. The NHT’s website use cookies as this enable us to identity users’ device and automatically log in registered users of certain services without them having to provide registration details each time they visit our website. We also use cookies in conjunction with our web server’s log files to calculate the total number of visits to our website and the most used/viewed web pages.
Cookies do not allow us to access your computer or to gather any personal information about you, other than data you would have chosen to share with us, for example, your registration details. Additionally, users have the option to accept or decline cookies, as, while most browsers automatically accept cookies, users can modify their browser settings to refuse cookies. However, users must be mindful that the disabling of their browser cookie setting may hinder them from taking full advantage of all the website features.
Overall, cookies provide us with useful information that enables us to constantly monitor and improve our website in order better serve our customers.
SHARING OF THE INFORMATION
The NHT will not share, reveal, disclose or disseminate your personal details and/or financial information to any third party, except in the course of delivering or processing the service you have requested, having received your written permission to do so, or under the following circumstances:
- In compliance with court orders or other legal actions necessary to defend or initiate legal claim;
- Pursuant to a request made under the Access to Information Act;
- Where there are potential threats to the physical safety of persons and/or national security safeguards;
- Law enforcement-prevention or detection of crime, apprehension or prosecution of offenders, assessment or collection of any tax or duty or of any imposition of a similar nature;
- Social work (by order of the Minister)-information for the purpose of carrying out social work in relation to a data subject or other individuals;
- Regulatory activities;
- Research, history, statistics;
- Disclosure required by law or in connection with legal proceedings or criminal investigation related to fraud, money laundering, lottery scam inter alia.
SECURITY
NHT operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised individuals have access to the information provided by our customers.
Controls used across our online infrastructure include:
Robust and multi-layered security of servers and applications;
Internal and external firewalls with monitoring and management systems;
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption to protect information in transmission;
Automated session time-out after an extended period of inactivity is detected.
Transaction Security
This website uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to provide the necessary assurance that the transmission of personal data is secure. This can be identified by the visual display of the padlock symbol in the status bar on the bottom right hand corner of your web browser and the URL address starting with https://, . SSL applies encryption of data in transmission between two points such as your computer and the connecting web server.
Links to other Websites
To enhance the effectiveness of our services this site facilitates links to other websites. The privacy policy of this site and its related guarantees are not transferable and will not be applicable to any other website to which you may link.
YOUR CONSENT
By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of information by NHT. We reserve the right to change these conditions. If changes are made to our privacy policy, notification will be posted on our home page and on other key pages on our site so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.
Your continued use of the site will signify your acceptance of the changes in the policy.
DISCLAIMER
The NHT has taken reasonable steps to ensure the security of personal information shared and transmitted via NHT Online. All personal information from our customers or third parties on behalf of our customers is secured using industry standard measures once such information in our possession. However, complete confidentiality and security over the internet is not yet possible, and there exists a remote possibility of data security violations occurring. In the event of such a violation, NHT does not accept any liability for information that is accessed, tampered, corrupted and/or used illicitly before being in our possession, nor does NHT accept liability for direct, indirect, special or consequential damage, loss or harm arising out of the use of the site, except where such damage, loss or harm is proven to be caused by the negligence of NHT in failing to comply with the requirements of Data Protection Act and/or Regulations and/or any other relevant law.
INDEMNITY
Whilst we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the information you provide will be kept secure from unauthorised access and use, the internet is not a secure environment, therefore, we cannot absolutely guarantee that information will be secure at all times during transmission to our web-server.
You agree to fully indemnify and hold the NHT, its officers, agents and employees harmless from any claim or demand, made by any third party due to and arising out of the use of the on-line payment facility.
If you have any questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy please contact us using the details below:
Data Protection Compliance Officer
dataprotectionofficer@nht.gov.jm
The National Housing Trust
4 Park Boulevard,
Kingston 5